Salt-dredge



(No Model.)

H. B. BEACH.

- SALT DREDGE. v No. 316,725. Patented Apr. 28, 1885.

UNITE STATES,

PATENT tries...

HENRY B. BEACH, OF MERIDEN, CONNECTICUT.

SALT DREDGE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 316,725, dated April 28, 1885.

Application filed December 8, 1884. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, HENRY B. BEACH, of Meridemin the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a new Improvement in Salt-Dredges; and I do hereby declare thefollowing, when taken in connection with accompanying drawings and the letters of reference marked thereon, to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, and which said drawings constitute part of this specification, and represent, in

Figure l, a yertical central section of a dredge, showing the clearer therein; Fig. 2, a perspective view of the clearer; Fig. 3, a common construction of the clearer; Fig. 4 an inverted dredge with the common clearer therein, for the purpose of illustrating the ob ject of this improvement.

This invention relates to an improvement in dredges for salt-such as used for table service. In the more general construction of this class of dredges the body is in the form of a glass bottle provided with a perforated cap. The neck of the bottle is necessarily contract ed, and to make it ornamental is of irregular shape. Such irregular shape tends to clog the salt at the neck. To avoid such clogging a clearer has been introduced into the bottle, such as seen in Fig. 3 being the most common construction, consisting of a central bar terminating at each end with a head with pins projecting therefrom; but in damp atmospheres this clearer often forms an obstruction, from the fact that in using the dredge in the inverted position, as seen in Fig. 4, one of the heads of the clearer enters the neck, and the salt falling around it clings to the neck and to the clearer, so as to hold the clearer in that position, and from which it can only be removed by a sharp blow upon the dredge. This not being done the salt soon hardens, and the bottle must be opened and the salt cleared but without some clearer the salt will pack in the bottle when standing for a time, so as to render the dredge practically useless.

To overcome these difficulties is the object of my invention; and it consists in a clearer composed of a spindle having two heads constructed of any convenient shape for disturbing the salt, the spindle extended beyond the upper head to form a guard to prevent the head from entering the neck to any considerable extent, and as more fully hereinafter described. I

A represents the spindle provided with two heads, a b, which may be of the same shape as the usual construction, as seen in Fig. 3, and with pins projecting downward from the lower head and upward from the upper head. The spindle A is continued to form an extension, B, above the upper head, of a length considerably greater than the pins, and should be in axial line with the spindle A. The heads may be of any irregular or suitable shape which, when the bottle is shaken, will disturb the salt in the bottle. The clearer is introduced into the bottle the head a downward, leaving the extension B upward. As the bottle is inverted in dredging the salt the extension B willpass into the neck and form a stop to prevent the entrance of the head I) so far into the neck as to permit the salt to fill. in around it, and as seen in broken lines, Fig. 1; hence when the bottle is returned to its vertical position the weight of the clearer will cause it to fall back into the bottle, and thereby the clogging of the clearer at the neck is avoided. In shaking the extension b in no way interferes with the action of the heads upon the salt in the bottle, and because the upper head of the clearer is prevented from entering the neck the pins may be turned outward,as shown, which shape Will cause them to act more directly upon the salt than when in the usual position parallel with the axis.

From the foregoing it will be understood that I do not claim, broadly, a clearer or breaker having projections extending therefrom and adapted to be introduced into a saltdredge and work loosely' therein as the dredge is shaken-such, for instance, as that seen in Patent No. 242,16l; nor do I claim, broadly, a spindle having projections therefrom when such spindle is rigidly held in the dredgesuch as found in Reissued'latent No. 6,015, 5

and Patent No. 270,189my invention relating, specially, to an improvement in the class the npperhcad,the said clearer arranged loose- 1o of clearers or breakers adapted to be employed 1y in the bottle, with the extension of the spinloose in the dredge. dle toward'the perforated top, substantially as I c1aimdescribed. 5 In a salt-dredge consisting of a receptacle HENRY B BEACH for salt provided with a perforated top, the

combination therewith of a clearer consisting Witnesses: of a spindle, A, provided with breaking-heads SAMUEL DURELL, a b, and constructed with an extension, B, from LEWIs HALL. 

